Les Éditions Vermillon revives Western France’s obscure musical moments.

Les Éditions Vermillon works more like a cultural salvage operation than a typical record label, driven by a desire to dig up the most beguiling, obscure tracks from France’s regional scenes and throw them back into the spotlight. Founded by Théo Berthier, Baptiste Heiles, Elise Kravets, and Hugo Le Blay, it started as a group of friends swapping weird, wonderful records, the kind that never made it past the local club.

What started as a loose exchange of rare tracks grew into something bigger. Just collecting these oddball gems wasn’t enough. They wanted to give the songs another shot at being heard. So they built Les Éditions Vermillon to track down forgotten sounds and restore them, not out of nostalgia or trend-chasing but because they knew those tracks had life left in them.

For their first release, Le Grand Sud-Est – 1979–1986, the label dug through archives, tracked down musicians, and digitally restored aging tapes to make sure the music sounds as dynamic now as it did back then. The result doesn’t just dredge up forgotten tracks but brings a cultural moment back into focus, when funk, disco, and early electronic music all blurred together into something unmistakably regional and undeniably French.

Their new compilation, Le Grand Ouest, pulls together records from Western France. In the release notes, the label admits that pinning down a single genre for the collection was nearly impossible. “They draw, each in their own way, from the rock scene that dominated the ’80s in France, from countercultures, from American stars who shone on the country’s radio stations and in its record stores, and even from local folk music.”

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They dug deep for this one, trawling through the discographies of Brittany, Normandy, and Pays de la Loire, piecing together a regional puzzle from demo cassettes and long-forgotten records. “We have meticulously researched the references of artists, musicians, studios, labels, and publishers from each region. We sought to trace each artist to identify and listen to all their works from that period, and, when possible, collect unreleased recordings, left as demo cassettes on the artists’ dusty shelves.”

The first release, they explain, “exhibited the funkiest sides of the Provençale and Rhône-Alpes scene.” In contrast, Le Grand Ouest leans more toward mellow, introverted music, the sound of friends playing together for the sheer joy of it. One highlight, “Casse-Tête Jungle” by Les Espions, is an especially brilliant slice of Casiotone pop, calling to mind Anna Domino, Virginia Astley, and Young Marble Giants offshoot Weekend.

Then there’s Marie-Ange Cousin’s “Molle Ouatte,” with its eerie slide guitar opening that shifts into a trippy soft rock ballad, like it’s been ripped straight from a worn VHS tape.

The first 500 copies come with an extensive booklet filled with unpublished photos, press clippings, and track notes, a tactile reminder of just how much care went into dragging these songs out of obscurity and giving them room to breathe again. The first pressing of the vinyl is nearly sold out, but we still have a few copies available in our online shop.